They were fabulously rich and well-known in their day, but where were the Ephrussi family from and what were they like?

T
he Ephrussis came from Odessa, where they made their fortune in grain. By
1860, they were the largest grain exporters in the world. As the rich and
ambitious Jewish family settled in Paris and Vienna, they distanced
themselves from their trading roots and became bankers. By the late 19th
century, their wealth and influence were comparable to the Rothschilds’. The
family, however, was more effervescent than its business interests suggest.

For instance, Charles Ephrussi — the first owner of the netsuke that gives de
Waal’s book its name — was a dandy and patron to the impressionists, who
once employed Marcel Proust as his secretary.

The novelist later returned the favour by modelling Charles Swann, a central
figure in A la recherche du temps perdu, on his former boss. When Emmy, the
author’s great-grandmother, married Viktor Ephrussi, she was 18,
“startlingly beautiful, and fabulously dressed”. Just as she enjoyed a
change in